Having the right IT provider is essential to successfully manage any kind of business venture today. The cyber landscape is continuously changing with advancements in technology, growing compliance demands, and more sophisticated cyberattack methodologies.

Without the proper alignment from a reputable tech support provider, you will not only lag in the achievement of your business goals, however, you will also be left greatly exposed to all types of cyberattacks that may hinder or even permanently damage the operations of your business.

In this piece, we will discuss some of the benefits of choosing a professional tech provider in detail, and how to find a provider suitable for your needs. We will also highlight some of the risks you may encounter when hiring an unqualified IT support provider. Keep reading to find out more.

What is an IT Service Provider?

An IT service provider or IT solutions provider, is a managed services provider or value-added reseller (VAR) that helps take care of a client’s IT needs, ranging from concept design, to installation, right through to offering managed IT services.

For most businesses, especially small to medium sized ventures, it is relatively affordable and more convenient to outsource IT services, which results in a greater variety of IT services available. This due to the fact that it is generally extremely costly and time-consuming, to assemble a skilled in-house IT team.

Besides, most daily IT concerns for businesses can be managed remotely, making it easier and more meaningful to outsource IT needs to third parties with the skills and competencies you require regarding your business’ IT concerns.

Benefits of Choosing a Professional Managed IT Provider

Many companies claim to be managed IT providers, but not all of them are worth your time and money.

The role played by professional IT services in your business, is so important that you shouldn’t just let any company take care of your business IT needs.

By choosing a professional tech provider, you stand to benefit from the following:

Access to Expert IT Providers and Current Technologies

One of the benefits that come with hiring an expert IT provider, is easy access to industry experts and current technologies.

A professional tech provider will equip you with valuable resources and highly skilled professionals that you wouldn’t normally be able to afford within your organization.

Also, you will have access to a pool of experts in a variety of fields to cover all aspects of your IT needs, including networking, information technology, and management of your computer security systems.

Cost Reduction

As already observed, it is more expensive to assemble a competent in-house IT team to take care of your business IT needs.

By opting for a professional tech provider, you won’t have to worry about on-site staffing needs.

Also, you will have the convenience of signing up only for the specific services you need, further lowering the cost of your IT needs.

You Get More Time to Focus on Your Core Businesses

It is always a good idea to focus on managing the most important aspects of your business.

As a business, you can allocate your time and business resources to activities that allow you to achieve your business objectives.

By choosing a professional tech provider, you won’t need to spend time and effort trying to figure out which software or hardware technologies you need, troubleshoot problems in your system, install software, and how to secure and maintain various platforms.

You will have all the time you need to concentrate on developing your business.

Reduced Downtime

Downtime in your system can result in enormous business costs. Poor internet connectivity, loss of email communication, corrupted data, or even a system failure, may come with prolonged consequences regarding the profitability of the business.

A professional tech provider will take pre-emptive measures to ensure that you don’t run into any downtime, and that your systems are always up and ready to serve your business needs.

How to Choose an IT Support Provider

Choosing the right IT support provider is not rocket science. The field of IT continues to expand, and your business will only require certain select services.

To land the best provider for your needs, consider the following:

Define Your IT Services Requirements

Before venturing out to research any IT support provider, you need to identify the specific technologies or IT services you need.

Having a clear picture of what you require, will help you narrow your focus, limiting it to more specialized service providers, and tremendously increasing your chances of landing just the right firm for your business.

Additionally, you will be able to contain the budget, since you will not be opting for every service available.

Referrals Within Your Network of Friends & Associates

Once you are clear about what you want, you can then tap into your network of friends and business associates for referrals, for the best tech support provider.

Referrals are great because you will be working with a provider that has been tested beforehand, by someone you know and trust.

You can also checkout online reviews submitted by past clients of each of the referred businesses, and determine whether you would like to work with them based on the reviews submitted.

Proactive Maintenance VS Reactive IT Support

In order to obtain a good experience, you need to opt for an IT service provider that will offer proactive monitoring of your systems, so that problems can be prevented proactively, prior to manifesting themselves.

Through monitoring and continual maintenance of your systems, your tech provider will ensure that you avoid issues that are likely to impact the productivity of your business.

However, you will also need them to be reactive, so that they can quickly and efficiently handle some of the day-to-day concerns that may arise within your system, such as printer problems, cloud issues, phone problems, network connectivity problems, and computer problems, among other issues.

Reliable IT Support

IT-related problems can pop up any day of the week, and any time of the day, even while attempting to enjoy your holidays. This is why you need reliable IT support, including 24/7 support, so that they can resolve any glitches when needed.

Before you make any commitment to them as your provider of choice, ensure that you can count on their help when you need them the most. To verify the reliability of their support, try performing the following:

• Call them at odd hours, to see if a real person answers, or if you are directed to voicemail.
• Call on weekends or holidays to see whether their support is available outside normal business hours.
• Send an email (or use their ticketing system) and label your issue as URGENT.
• Take note of how long they take to respond and provide a fix.

Risks of Poor IT Support Services

Some of the risks you may encounter if you don’t select your IT support services provider wisely, may include the following:

• Service unavailability for long durations
• Poor customer service and user experience leads to unhappy clients
• Low productivity and poor staff morale
• Potential financial losses
• Increased risk to security breaches
• Poor reputation according to your customers

Conclusion: The Value of Choosing the Best IT Provider

IT plays a vital role in the day-to-day operations of any modern business enterprise or organization. As such, making sure you choose the best IT provider will have a tremendous impact on the overall success of your organization. A competent provider will contribute to the smooth operations of your business, and will also keep your system safe from attacks. Use the tips shared above to help you land the perfect provider for your IT needs.

For more information, or if you need a reliable IT provider to partner with, contact Info-Tech Montreal, one of the best it companies in Montreal, to improve the operations, efficiency and security of your business.

Are you really aware of what is circulating on your network? Most companies can only partially see the devices connected to the network and their activities, leaving them unaware of the security risks.

With everything going on in the world today, it’s no surprise that cybersecurity is a top priority for every IT department. Cyber-attacks against businesses are widespread and destructive.

Customers now have zero tolerance for data breaches. If an attack occurs and their personal information is exposed, they will not hesitate to find another company to work with. Now is the best time to review your security status, and make adjustments to your plan.

Current Threat Environment

A threat is a potential breach that affects the confidentiality, availability or integrity of a resource. Threats can include disclosure of sensitive data, falsification of data, and even denial of access to services.

The current threat environment consists of information about threats, malicious actors and threat vectors, from which attacks can occur.

Malicious actors are individuals or groups who seek to cause damage via existing threats. For example, in the case of laptop theft, the malicious actor is the thief. A threat vector is a path that allows an attack. For example, the door is left open or the laptop is not attached to the table.

What is a safety assessment?

A safety assessment can take many forms. In general, a security assessment is a technical review of your technological systems, physical security, and rules, where a security expert looks for vulnerabilities and weaknesses that could lead to a security incident. Security assessments may vary depending on who is conducting them, and your business objectives for the assessment.

Why is it important to secure an internal network?

Networks are one of the main targets of attacks because they rarely incorporate security risk considerations into their design. Network security is an important issue for businesses. Indeed, the increasing importance of computer resources, the interconnection of information systems, and their disclosure, increase the risk of attacks.

At the same time, information (data) is generated, exchanged and processed by systems and networks that may be vulnerable to any level of component or configuration, including servers, workstations, segmentation, Wi-Fi, user access and applications.

The basics

In order to protect your computer network, it is important to have good protection tools, such as antivirus software, firewalls and anti-spam software. To protect your network, you must allow your employees to adopt best practices such as:

• Using complex passwords
• Not opening attachments: unknown or uncontrolled files
• Avoid connecting to compromised websites.

Using a VPN can help. It is important to understand the key concepts related to network security. Without knowing the vulnerabilities and malicious actors, it is difficult to know which security controls are the best to implement.

For example, you need to understand that your identity must be verified before you can access our system. This is basic knowledge to identify the right suppliers and solutions.

Access control

Access control is a type of security control that most people are familiar with. Today, most people use passwords to connect to their computers. You may have done it yourself a few minutes ago. A password may have been used to access a network, application or file. On average, a person must keep track of 10 passwords. The implementation of access control is divided into four parts: identification, authentication, authorization and liability.

This process uses unique identifiers such as user IDs, usernames and account numbers to verify your identity. The system authenticates a user’s identity by verifying the user’s known identifiers, such as username and password. It may also be in your possession, such as an ID card or a one-time password. Authorization is the process of granting authorizations after the system has validated the user.

The last part, responsibility, deals with the monitoring of user activity and the accountability of users to whom access is granted for their actions on the system. Passwords are not the only option anymore. There are many options, including one-time passwords, smart cards, and devices and software that generate biometric data. Particular attention should be paid to the choice of the appropriate option for each network resource.

Vulnerabilities

An exploitable vulnerability must exist for a threat to occur. A vulnerability can be used by a malicious actor to violate your security policy.

Going back to the laptop example, lightweight design, portability and convenience are features that attract many customers. At the same time, the same characteristic is a weak point that increases the risk of theft. Security controls such as door and cable locks slow down malicious actors, reduce the likelihood of theft, and reduce the overall risk.

Prevent, detect, Solve

Confidentiality, integrity and availability are the key attributes that define the objectives of any information security process. This process involves many strategies and activities. Each is in one of three phases: prevention, detection and remediation. The pillars of the prevention phase are:

• Define the elements to be protected
• Define organizational responsibilities
• Establishment of implementation procedures
• Application Details
• Create a security awareness program to train all employees
• Establish access controls to manage how employees access and use company resources

Why carry out this analysis?

Network security is constantly evolving. There will be new threats and vulnerabilities, new uses, evolving segmentation, and much more. Effective network security management requires comprehensive knowledge of the network environment.

All threats must be assessed on a regular basis to determine relative risk.

From there, you can effectively manage priorities and resources to address these risks, improve security, and prevent attacks and business interruptions. This scan is a quick and easy way to view applications, threats and vulnerabilities on your network.

As a result of an increasing amount of information being exchanged online, network security has become imperative to the majority of businesses. The best way to prevent a security breach, along with associated liabilities, which would result in further headwinds facing your business, is to create an IT Security policy, a Data Recovery (DR) plan, a Privacy Policy, all of which can be managed by Info-Tech Montreal. This will protect your business continuity, regardless of the size of your company or the nature of your industry. In other words, you will now be able to operate without the fear or threat that your business could face stressful and costly downtime, data loss, permissions issues, breach of information, or undesirable liabilities.

Studies conducted relating to current and future ways of conducting business, reveal that approximately half of small businesses admit that they still need to improve their response plans regarding data breaches, and IT security incidents. This remains a clear indication that Info-Tech Montreal’s solutions are not only extremely relevant, but are necessary in order to achieve secure business operations.

It is also important to note that a significant number of businesses that experienced a data breach, have admitted that they didn’t have appropriate IT solutions in place. This has also revealed that the business lacks internal IT knowledge and experience. It also demonstrates a lack of knowledge and policies designed to regulate or restrict access to internal information by a third party, which must be implemented to establish and maintain all data security needs.

Info-Tech Montreal helps small and mid-sized businesses, in Canada, manage their computer networks and cater to their general and more bespoke I.T. needs. By choosing Info-Tech, it is important to us that we provide you with the results you need from your technology investment – even if you don’t know exactly what those needs are. We work diligently with our clients to assess your current situation, and then suggest products and services that will best meet your immediate needs. Our experts digress from complex ‘tech-talk’ & explain all your choices in clear, non-technical terms, so there is a clear and concise understanding of how your business & employees will benefit from each selected option. More often than ever, businesses and employees are being targeted by sophisticated phishing attacks due to the valuable information that criminals who engage in such phishing attempts can be potentially acquire. Workplace phishing emails are now made to look like they are from a legitimate organization, a client or even a co-worker. Whether your employees are working from home, in the office or elsewhere, it’s important that they are able to perform their job at a high level without the potential of putting the company’s information at risk. Info-Tech manages all backend systems that are hardware, software, and security-related. A heavy focus is on prevention of such cyber security threats, including the more recent threat of ransomware, whereby a person or company’s information is essentially held hostage, potentially until a payment is made as per the demands of this type of cyber-criminal.

It is important to note, however, that cyber-attacks aren’t unique to large corporations. Every single individual with an online presence should protect their IT systems, too. Below are a few practical steps you can take immediately, to tighten up your data security, via services offered by Info-Tech Montreal.

IT Network Security

Network Security is vital in protecting client data and information, keeping shared data secure and ensuring reliable access and network performance, as well as protection from cyber threats. A well-designed network security solution reduces overhead expenses and safeguards organizations from costly losses that occur from a data breach or other security incident. Ensuring legitimate access to systems, applications and data enables business operations and delivery of services and products to customers.

Network security involves access control, virus and anti-virus software, application security, network analytics, network related security, firewalls, VPN encryption and more according to the clients’ specific needs.

IT Risk Management

IT risk management, also called “information security risk management,” consists of the policies, procedures, and technologies that a company uses to mitigate risks from malicious actors and reduce information technology vulnerabilities that negatively impact data confidentiality, integrity, and availability. An effective IT risk management program should use a combination of different policies and strategies, as attacks can come in many forms and what works for one data asset might not be successful for another. However, there are overarching actions that all organizations can take to begin strengthening their cybersecurity posture. Most importantly, it is imperative that enterprise security teams have continuous monitoring in place to ensure that cybersecurity efforts are keeping up with the evolving threat landscape. Starting out by putting together all your SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) will facilitate the identification of potential security risks or vulnerabilities.

Cyber Security Services

Cyber security is the practice of shielding computers, servers, mobile devices, electronic systems, networks, and data from malicious attacks. It’s also known as information technology security or electronic information security. The term applies in a variety of contexts, from business to mobile computing, and can be divided into a few common categories.

The threats countered by cyber-security consist of:

a) Cybercrime includes single actors or groups targeting systems for financial gain or to cause disruption.
b) Cyber-attack often involves politically motivated information gathering.
c) Cyberterrorism is intended to undermine electronic systems to cause panic or fear.

Even as companies invest in data security modules, there remain simple measures that can be applied to continually up the ante on how businesses and allow employees an opportunity to grow their knowledge and ability to implement the basics of cybersecurity. Info-Tech Montreal makes sure clients are briefed when creating, managing, accessing and storing files, and how to identify emails or information designed to harm the entire company. There will also be a process for managing the company’s sensitive information including passwords, customer lists, and client or company information.

Some useful pointers include:

• Ensure passwords are strong; staff shouldn’t use their name, birthday, street address or other personal information. In addition, passwords should be at least 16 characters long, contain both upper and lowercase characters, numbers and special characters.
• Teach staff how to deal with sensitive data, for example, only store it using trusted cloud services that need to be authenticated for access and do not share it with untrusted or third parties.
• Install, configure and enforce the use of legitimate software, via Info-Tech Montreal.
• Create backups of essential data and regularly update IT equipment and applications to avoid unpatched vulnerabilities that could cause a breach.
• There are a host of solutions available to Info-Tech Montreal that are easy to set up, enable businesses to protect sensitive data and secure financial transactions, as well as safeguard user credentials.

There are, of course, numerous reasons why companies decide to invest in their privacy program. It is also imperative to note that, it is not just about levelling the playing field, it is also about protecting the personal data of individuals, and allowing them to protect and exercise their rights and gain control over how their data is processed, by whom, and under what circumstances. Protecting your company’s valuable information is essentially about equipping oneself on how to navigate this abundant online World.

This means you will need to consider what kind of company you want to be and what kind of values you want to support. Focusing on privacy as one of your company’s key values can help you create trust between you and your customers throughout the course of time. In addition, you will be eligible for larger contracts from higher profile organizations, since most publicly traded companies have a vendor management process, and your company’s IT Security Policy, DR Policy and Privacy Policy need to be up-to-date in order for you to qualify as a supplier.